Nigerian Media’s Perception of the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative--A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

As the largest economy and a major energy country in Africa, Nigeria formally joined the "the Belt and Road" initiative in 2018, and the cooperation between China and Nigeria based on the initiative has achieved fruitful results. However, there is no research on Nigeria's real understanding of the initiative. Using Transitivity System and the Appraisal Theory as the analysis framework and AntConc and UAM Corps Tool as analysis tools, this paper studies the reports on the "the Belt and Road" by three mainstream media in Nigeria: the National Daily, the Guardian and the Leadership. The study found that most Nigerian media reports showed a positive attitude, but a few reports reflected their misinterpretation of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, which may be affected by the malicious advocacy of western countries.